The Eurozone crisis exposed weaknesses in the Eurozone’s design. This column – by Nobelist Joe Stiglitz and World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu – argues that the Eurozone’s financial architecture can be improved by amending the Treaty of Lisbon to permit appropriately structured cross-country liability for sovereign debt incurred by EZ members.

Veiled or explicit anti-Irish threats will swing some ‘yes’ voters to the no-camp in a second referendum. If Europe's leaders want the Lisbon Treaty, they must unambiguously commit to respecting the results of a second Irish referendum. This would deprive the no campaign of convincing arguments and help restore the EU’s tarnished image across Europe.

This column argues that the Lisbon Treaty is a Trojan horse where better rules of government (a good thing) are associated with fears of their misuse (excessive centralization). No wonder voters won’t open the gates. EU leaders need to dispense with schemes designed to bypass the will of the people and focus instead on fundamentally rethinking the goals and processes of political integration. Until this is clarified, European electorates will be confused, fear the “Eurocrats” and vote no.

This column shows that the flow of EU decision-making has slowed. The Lisbon Treaty could bolster decision-making efficiency and democracy by reinforcing the three main elements of representative democracy, namely elected representatives that fight for their constituencies’ interests, compete with other such representatives, and are accountable to voters. But that still leaves open the question of implementation.

The Irish ‘no’ – like the 2005 French ‘non’ – shows a clear poor/rich and urban/rural divide. Working-class and rural voters are systematically voting against further European integration. European leaders should take note.